As the president and Republicans in Congress spend time this week pushing a constitutional amendment on gay marriage that has absolutely no chance of becoming law, perhaps they ought to take just a moment to check out the latest Gallup Poll. Gallup asked 1,003 Americans to say — without any prompting from the pollsters — what should be the “top priority for the president and Congress to deal with.” Here is the complete tally of responses:
Situation in Iraq/war: 42 percent.
Fuel/oil prices/lack of energy sources/the energy crisis: 29 percent.
Immigration/illegal aliens: 23 percent.
Economy in general: 14 percent.
Poor healthcare/hospitals; high cost of healthcare: 12 percent.
Terrorism: 4 percent.
Education/poor education/access to education: 4 percent.
Federal budget deficit/federal debt: 3 percent.
Unemployment/jobs: 3 percent.
Taxes: 3 percent.
Social Security: 2 percent.
International issues/problems: 2 percent.
National security: 2 percent.
Environment/pollution: 2 percent.
Medicare: 2 percent.
Foreign aid/focus overseas: 2 percent.
Poor leadership/corruption/dissatisfaction with government/ Congress/politicians/candidates: 2 percent.
Poverty/ hunger/ homelessness: 1 percent.
Ethics/moral/religious/family decline; dishonesty; lack of integrity: 1 percent.
Natural disaster relief/funding: 1 percent.
Trade deficit/foreign trade: 1 percent.
High cost of living/inflation: 1 percent.
Unifying the country: Less than .5 percent.
Judicial system/courts/laws: Less than .5 percent.
Abortion: Less than .5 percent
Lack of money: Less than .5 percent.
Gap between rich and poor: Less than .5 percent.
Other: 1 percent.
No opinion: 4 percent.
Still looking for that part where people say “make a futile push for a constitutional amendment to stop homosexuals from getting married”? So are we.
